How do you judge which deities are most effective to listen to your prayers? My answer will be they are probably those where VIPs come often. Because, aren’t VIPs expected to have bigger problems than us, the common people? Since news-grabbing VIPs are mostly concentrated in Mumbai and Delhi, it follows that most effective deities are located in those 2 megapolis. But now we’ve other serious contenders in that coveted rank. How about Baba Vishwanath temple in Varanasi?
Yesterday’s small screen and today’s papers serve Bachchans’ family-visit to the Varanasi temple with great fervor. There were no less than 5 VIPs (if you do not count Ajitabh Bachchan and Shweta Nanda among them) to say prayers at the Baba’s temple in early hours yesterday. Speculation is rife as to the reason behind Aishwarya Rai too accompanying the group.
Baba Vishwanath’s temple apart, another famous non-metro temple frequented by VIPs is the Lord Venkateswara’s devasthanam at Tirupati. Congress president Sonia Gandhi is perhaps the latest VVIP to have offered prayers there on Nov 24 (..more).
Talking about temples in metros preferred by VIPs, the firsts that come to mind are Siddhi Vinayaka temple at Prabhadevi, Mumbai (Sanjay Dutt visits it yesterday to seek blessings on the eve of today’s ‘judgment day’), Kalighat temple in Kolkata, and of course the Lord Venkateswara temple in Mylapore, Chennai. Unfortunately for Delhi, except for Kalka Mai’s temple at Kalkaji – not usually preferred by VIPs – none else makes the elite rank.
As for common people like us, we’re easily satisfied by blessings given by any deity, either in big temples or one at home corner. If some more is required, there is always the occasional pilgrimage to places like Ganga Sagar Mela, Kumbh Mela or suchlike, where the Gods descend on special days to listen to our prayers.
Belur Math – where knowledge begins! [Picture source]
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